university of california, santa cruz

January 15, 2016

#StopWhitePeople2015

*Above is screenshot of images that came up on my explore page on Instagram when I typed in “#StopWhitePeople2015”.

This hashtag demonstrates making fun of the stereotypical random things white people in general partake in. Such as the way they dance, the risky adventures they go on, the videos they post on social media for attention- basically all these vast social movements white people have started to through media are making people of other races want to make it stop.

Although, this hashtag is meant to be funny and not taken seriously, I have decided to take it more to a serious extent. After last year, I have noticed a lot of flaws in our social world especially with race, and it only seems to be getting worse. This hashtag has changed my perspective on what social media wants this hashtag to truly mean. However, I see #StopWhitePeople2015 as #StopWhitePrivilege2015, #StopBlackAppropriation2015, #StopWhiteCopsVsBlackPeople2015.

#StopWhitePrivilege2015

According to Google, white privilege “is a term for societal privileges that benefit people identified as white in Western countries, beyond what is commonly experienced by non-white people under the same social, political, or economic circumstances.” There is an abundance of unfair advantages that white people have compared to non-whites. Because of white privilege, people never have to really worry about becoming the victim of law enforcement officers, whites can typically find jobs more easily than people of color, whites will never have to inform their children about the harsh realities of racism from their past experiences, statistics about prison, education, and social or economic status will never be repeated and reminded to whites as much as they are to other races, whites can usually wear whatever they would like without being called a thug, gangster, or low life, etc. White privilege means to not fear the police. White privilege means being treated as the victim rather than the suspect regardless if you truly are guilty. White privilege means you are the oppressor. White privilege equals no labeling. White privilege is The American Dream.

#StopBlackAppropriation2015

Or just stop cultural appropriation in general. These three images can also fall under the original hashtag #StopWhitePeople2015.

In the first image is a woman named Rachel Dolezal who claims she was born African-American when her parents appear to be fully white. To the rest of us, this woman is not black, she is trying to be. There is a difference. In the bottom left, a rapper who calls himself Riff Raff does not claim to be black but definitely appropriates the culture with his corn rows, grillz and saggy jeans. I am not saying that corn rows, grillz, and saggy jeans are the only aspects that make up black culture. They are just trends that stemmed out of a black society before any one else ever knew about it. Riff Raff may not admit it, but to the rest of us he is trying to be black even if he is making it a joke. And in the bottom left is a Victoria’s Secret Model walking the runway at the VS Fashion Show. It is the headdress that she is wearing that offends Native-American culture. I am about 100% sure this woman does not know how much such a headdress can mean to a culture that celebrates their beliefs by sometimes wearing similar headdresses. And for them to see this model strutting her practically nude body down the runway in public can highly offend somebody who sees this behavior.

#StopWhiteCopsVsBlackPeople2015

The first image is of Oscar Grant getting arrested by a white police officer in Fruitvale Station located in Oakland, California. He was shot and the police officer who shot him claimed he mistook his taser for his pistol… BULLSHIT. Excuse after excuse are what these officers give when being questioned. Why is it that in every white cop versus black male or female situation, the victims are seen as the suspect and the suspect is seen as the victim? Officers blame their mistakes on self defense or they could have sworn that the suspect was pulling out a weapon out of his pocket when really they were only just pulling out their surrendering hands or probably a cell phone to record the next black person being shot, beaten, killed, or arrested by a white cop. I may be wrong and also bias, but it just seems not a little but a lot odd to me that these exact scenarios keep reoccurring.

So #Let’sBringTheseHashtags to life in 2016.

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One thought on “#StopWhitePeople2015”

I really like that you chose to make #StopWhitePeople2015 into something more serious. Because its true with all the different hashtags you use within your blog post they bring up good points, especially #StopWhiteCopsVsBlackPeople2015. I agree with your statement under that #. I remember watching Fruitvale Station and thinking the same thing. Also it was pretty upsetting to see how they let the people causing trouble get away and instead automatically target the black males and although there were some who were mouthy the whole time they all did what was asked of them, so how come the officer needed to use force and shoot a man exercising his 1st Amendment right?

What’s messed up in society is that innocent law abiding citizens are being killed by officers (probs everyday) because 1. they “feel threatened” by an unarmed black man walking toward them 2. that said citizen is doing everything the officer is asking of them 3. they’re literally doing nothing and 4. more dumbass reasons… this is literally why police officers are being hated on because there are so many dumb trigger happy officers out there giving the rest of the police force a shitty ass reputation.